and our public school education? >> well, we're losing a lot. not just in public schools. in private schools. we don't understand the arts and culture help us to focus our political and financial aspirations. if you don't have a cultural base, you don't really know who you are. we have such an identity crisis in this time and one of the ways for us to solve that is to focus and concentrate on what has been achieved in the arts in this country and know who our great artists are. >> i also wanted to ask you about new orleans and how much was lost there and how you have worked so hard to rebuild that great city which is, of course, the source of the origins of jazz? our country. >> the city was under water and we lost a lot. the katrina story for the country is ultimately a very heroic story. people come from all over volunteers, everything from lawn sales, little kids, volunteers of all kinds, continue to come into the city. tourists, conventions being booked all over the world, people are pouring to new orleans and ha